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Vol14Chap8 - The Steel Tiger
'Vol 14 Chapter 8: The Steel Tiger' ---- "Those guys... taking their time so slowly... what are they doing?!" This was the Inn Street of Tiger's Highway. In this emptied place, Sheffield ordered the Jörmungandr to stay alert. She placed a light blue monocle, a magical tool, in front of her eye. Every Jörmungandr's vision was shown through this monocle. Using this tool, Sheffield could manipulate ten Jörmungandr as swift as if she was using her arms. An hour already passed since the landing. Romalia put up quite a bit of a fight; hence, all of the Jörmungandr’s ammunition was depleted. To effectively eliminate the Romalians, only using the "swords" they carried was not enough. Even though the Jörmungandr had "reflection spells" cast upon them, enemy attacks still could not be completely deflected. If the attacks continued for a while, ultimately the "reflection spells" would fail. To cease the firing of enemy guns and magic, long ranged weaponry was definitely needed for the immense golems. Resupplies of ammunition were supposed to be parachuted down from Gallian ships. Incidentally, the guns that started firing not long ago from Romalia’s ships still haven't stopped shooting yet. Despite Gallia’s obvious advantage of having two fleets, one third of the ships has rioted and refused to engage. In the end, the disorganized Gallian fleets accepted the showers of cannonballs with open arms. Even though the Jörmungandr needed more ammunition, resupplies never came. If the supplies did not arrive soon, Gallia would be in quite a bit of trouble. However, lack of ammunition was not the only problem. “Wind stones” were also needed. With the elves' assistance, Gallia manufactured these stones since they are the power source for Jörmungandr. In other words, the "wind stones" were required for the Jörmungandr to swiftly swing their beefy armored arms. If these stones were used up, Jörmungandr could hardly even move an inch. So, if this continued, no matter how powerful these armored golems are, they would not escape the fate of becoming big useless lumps of metal. After an intense battle with the Romalian forces, the consumption of wind stones was sky high. Though Romalia’s armies suffered great losses themselves as well, the fact that the Gallia’s side lacked supplies was still nothing to be happy about. Because this mission was not just to make them suffer, but to eradicate them all. If this could not be achieved, then burning Romalia into ashes seemed like a complete joke. Since Joseph expected Romalia to be incinerated, Sheffield would not hesitate to do so. With the aid of the Jörmungandr, Romalian armies dispersed across the country are no more than sitting ducks. '' That's what she thought. However, Romalia focused all of its troops to the two countries' border. Even so, she still needed to accomplish her task. If she did not, there would be no value for her existence anymore. In the field of vision of a distressed Sheffield, a ship broke off from the enemy fleets and was flying towards here, most likely to survey the Jörmungandr from above. Sheffield's crimson red lips twisted into a sinister smile. She waited for the ship to sail just a bit closer. When the enemy ship was around a few hundred meters above ground, Sheffield ordered two Jörmungandr to join hands and crouch. Another Jörmungandr stepped on their hands, and the two flung him up into the air. The Jörmungandr leaping into the air, climbed onto the survey ship like a spider. They never would have dreamt of such a large golem to be capable of 'leaping'. For a ship that was completely filled out with guns and cannonballs, withstanding the weight of a Jörmungandr was absolutely unreasonable. Subsequently, it fell down from the sky. As soon as it crashed on the ground, ten starving Jörmungandr ripped the ship into pieces, searching for precious wind stones. As if eating peas, the stolen wind stones were all crammed into their mouths. Afterwards, they took the cannons from the ship. They also stuffed cannonballs and gun powder into their pockets. Sheffield smiled at them lovingly. "Incredible. That golem actually flew into the air and brought down an entire ship." Reinard sighed. The Ondine Water Spirit Knights, waiting in Bella's underground cavern, watched all of this happen. Holes were created just large enough so that the knights could pop out their heads. Of course, their heads were covered by their capes, along with some soil on top. What a well planned disguise! Through the small cracks, the boys peeked at the situation for almost thirty minutes. Their job was to "lead the enemies to Louise who is waiting at the entrance". In reality, they had no idea how to commence it. Guiche frowned and corrected Reinard. "That is not just any golem. I remember seeing one similar to it back in Albion." "Was it powerful?" "Magic is ineffective. It seems that those monsters have some strange elven spell cast on them. The only thing that works against them is Louise's magic." The teens' faces instantly became sickening green. "Then what do we do?" Guiche was irritated. If they attacked without a well thought-out plan, they would probably end up in torn into shreds from either the gigantic cannons or the frightening swords. Magic doesn't work on them either. "If we keep waiting, eventually these monsters will head to Louise, I guess?" Gimili pointed out. "No.... they’ll probably take another path." "There are cliffs left and right. How is there another path?" "With their agility, can't they climb over the cliffs? Besides, those guys obviously know that the Romalian army has the entrance surrounded. They aren't idiots. They’re probably waiting for assistance from the fleet. Once the fleet assists them, they’ll attack directly to get through our defense." Reinard gave his point of view. Guiche nodded in agreement. "True. On the other hand, if they can't wait for assistance..." "If it was a normal commander, he would choose to go around, or wait until the fleet ends its battle. What will our opponent choose to do?" Malicorne used a 'distant-viewing' spell and observed the sky. With this spell, he understood that the war was going on slowly. They did not look like they wanted to win at all. From a distance, it looked like the battle might actually continue for another decade or so. "It doesn't look like any side would win." Reinard was right on target. The armored golems, using their fingerlike nails, stabbed their chubby fingers into the strong walls and started climbing. They looked like they planned to travel along the mountain range and attack from the army's side. "The cliffs are as tall as 200 meters! These things really plan to climb up?" "Looks like they're serious. And with such hand coordination.... they look just like acrobats at the circus." Many Jörmungandr climbed slowly, seemingly enjoying themselves. The spread out Romalian army pointed all their guns at the entrance. If flanked from both sides, they would definitely fall into chaos, and Louise's plan would fail horribly. "It looks like we have no choice. Better draw their attention now." Guiche kissed Bella beside him. Because he looked so serious, the teens all covered their dried mouths. Kissing a mole wasn’t really a romantic scene at all. "If I unfortunately die, Bella, take this to Montmorency. Do you get it?" Cutting off a part of his hair, Guiche handed it to Bella. Like saying "no, no", Bella shook her head with watery eyes. "Leave me smiling. I am a noble." With this scene in sight, the teens all gave their familiar parts of their hair and conveyed their last messages to their family and loved ones. "Reinard, tell me your plan." Guiche declared without flinching. "Plan? What are you talking about? All we can do is use magic to attract their attention, then fly away using levitation. If they're willing to listen to us and watch our show, then that's more than enough to please me." "Sweet. Let's go." Guiche leaped out of his hole and waved his rose, creating golems. The boys all casted their respective magic spells. The armored Golems that were climbing up were bombarded by magic-made explosions, but remained entirely unhurt. The Jörmungandr turned their heads without hurrying. "Idiots! We're down here!" Guiche kept trembling with fear, yet never stopped yelling at them. Two Jörmungandr slid down swiftly, firing their big guns. "Wind magic." The wind mages of the cavalry had already casted a magic barrier protecting them, beautifully blocking the giant shells and reflecting them away harmlessly. Guiche and the others cast their spells separately, provoking the enemy. Guiche's copper Golems, as if teasing the enemy, stood in front of them while making all sorts of weird signs and movements. "Hey! You God-abandoned Gallian bastards! We've been sent here to have fun with you! Come on at us!" The two Jörmungandr, wielding swords of unprecedented size, walked towards them, making cranking noises with each step. "They're taken the bait! They've taken the bait!" "Everyone, retreat!" Guiche and the rest cast levitation and began to flee. Flying in the air was apparently much faster than the Jörmungandr's walking; therefore escape might actually be available... "Watch your speed! Don't go too fast or they might give up chasing us!" The armored golems would occasionally stop and fire their guns. The shells were all grape shots; these shells released multiple smaller artilleries when fired. Though hitting aerial targets was difficult for the Jörmungandr, Guiche and his fellow knights were still made out of flesh and blood, so the grape shots were definitely not a good thing for them. "Ahh!" Guiche's shoulder was hit, pouring fresh blood out immediately. "Guiche! Are you alright?" "....Ugh, fine. Everyone! Keep flying! Fly towards our bright future!" Guiche pointed at the blurry exit at a distance. "I finally found you." Sheffield was like an anxious little girl in love, seeping out happy cries. ''That young teen controlling the copper golems.... wasn't he one of those at Albion, along with that naïve Tristain girl? If that's the case, the direction where they're escaping must lead to that Tristain girl as well, right? Most likely, that arrogant Gandálfr will there too, protecting her. This is not a time to attack from the shadows. '' "I will – including you little girl – kill of tens of thousands of army troops. That Gandálftr kid may have stopped an army of 70,000.... but if it were me, the enemy would have been simply crushed like ants. " The Jörmungandr ran as if they were flying. They would never lose to any type of enemy, unless they were fighting themselves. Riding on the shaky shoulders of a Jörmungandr, Sheffield thought to herfelf :''Why is it that I, having the greatest power of all familiars, always return home in defeat? In Albion and Tristain, that puny girl and her familiar made her fail so many times. Is it the difference between couples? Between herself and Joseph, there was never much of a couple-like emotion. She only blindly followed his orders. She knew this perfectly, and was perfectly fine about it too. However, their relationship was falling apart. Sheffield would never admit it, but jealousy burned in her heart. She was jealous of the wonderful relationship between Louise and Saito. "Unforgivable." Even though Sheffield was the familiar of a void user, just like Saito, Joseph only considered her as a tool, completely forgetting about love. That was certainly a fact, something Sheffield understood in that garden blooming of blue roses. From that point onwards, Sheffield fueled on jealousy secretly. The inscription of "Myozunitonirun" on her forehead emitted an eye piercing blue light. "This time, I'll definitely let you die without your limbs, your ashes scattered across Halkeginia." As events played out, Sheffield no longer cared about whether or not she could incinerate Romalia. All she wanted to do was to rip those two apart. Then... Joseph would also.... with me.... Sheffield's lips trembled, mesmerized with her own imagination. The Mind of God Myozunitonirun closed the distance between her and the Ondine knights little by little. "It's already been an hour.... what have the kids been doing? Did they escape from fear?" Carlo stated his thoughts. Louise's void spell finished being chanted a long time ago. What she had prepared was the same spell she used in Albion to shatter the Jörmungandr to pieces, "explosion". At the other side of Canyon Street, yelling was heard. "...ahhhhhhhh!" Louise squinted her eyes. Several dots were heading towards her way in midair. It was the Ondine Water Spirit Knights fleeing for their lives using their levitation magic. Behind them were two Jörmungandr, determined to destroy them. "Louise! You do the rest!" The boys zipped past her at an incredible speed. As soon as the Jörmungandr saw Louise waiting patiently a few hundred meters away, they began firing their guns. But it was too late. Louise had already aimed at the two Jörmungandr hunting down the Ondine Knights and unleashed the finished "explosion". A tiny beam of white light shone right in front of the Jörmungandr's eyes and expanded, consuming both monsters. "Dead?" Carlo laughed. Yet in the next moment, his smile turned into a twisted face of fear. After the bright light has dispersed, the Jörmungandr were still standing there, dumbfounded of course, but obviously unhurt. "Not even a scratch…?" Louise stared back at them, equally dumbfounded. "....But...why?" In the battle at Albion, "explosion" proved to work effectively against them. On one Jörmungandr's upper body, something shaped like a mouth opened up. Sheffield's voice boomed loudly from inside. "Long time no see, void user of Tristain! I've been looking forward to this conversation." "Myozunitonirun!" "What a pity just now! Elven technology is capable of imprinting defensive mechanisms within the armor itself. Although the superficial defense was disintegrated by 'void', the power from the remaining fragments weren't enough to go through the armor." She sounded cheerfully. "Arrrrrrggggggg!" Carlo, who in charge of keeping Louise safe, shrieked out of pure fear and abandoned his position. The rest of the Crusaders followed Carlo. In a blink of an eye, there was no one surrounding Louise anymore, leaving her in the open. From behind, Guiche called out "Louise! Run!" Yet, Louise's legs did not move at all. "I.... I am a saint! How could I retreat from the battlefield?!" Having fun with their prey, the Jörmungandr paced slowly forward, taking all the time in the world. "Protect her! Cover Louise!" All sorts of incantations were directed to the Jörmungandr. Despite their defense magic already being completely shattered, the elven upgrades on the armor was indeed extremely sturdy. Not only icebolts, fireballs and that sort, even alchemy attacks were futile against them. Louise prepared to chant again. If once was not enough, then she would keep doing it until it was. No matter how dangerous the situation appears to be, never give up. '' By following that rule, she was able to solve all the crises she faced and live until this very day, she thought. Winds began blaring, just as Jörmungandr swung their gigantic swords. BANG! The ground in front of where Louise was just now had been impacted so forcefully that large cracks formed. The immense pressure caused by the winds due to the swinging of the swords pushed Louise back. Letting go her wand, Louise helplessly knelt on the soil. "You damned girl.... for a long time, I couldn't do anything about you. I won't let you die so easily and quickly. I'll make you pay for showing King Joseph and me contempt!" Louise wanted to stand up, but her body was not following her basic commands. Jörmungandr, at a height of around 25 meters, really were legendary killing machines. And so, the two enormous golems stared down upon her from above. The surrounding Romalian troops commenced attacking in unison. The shells and bullets all landed on the Jörmungandr accurately, since everyone fired at such a close range. Around a couple dozen of rounds blasted the surface of the Jörmungandr. The "reflection magic" gave a faint shimmer, easily warding off these pitiful attacks. Around Louise, all sorts of shell fragments poured down like a waterfall. Fortunately, someone of the Ondine Water Spirit Knights generated a shield for Louise. "Wuaaaaaaaaa! They're monsters! Ahhhhh!" Soldiers frantically ran for their lives, no matter what their rank was or how much ammo they had left. This was not strange at all. Despite it being called a "Crusade", facing an opponent immune to your attacks is no different asking death to take you away. Without even being able to dent their armor, courage naturally deflated. In the crowd of fleeing allies, only Louise was encouraging herself. "Never give up!" Until now, hasn't she faced this kind of despairing situation multiple times? Each time, didn't she stand up and fight back? Granted power from God.... …relying on this system called "void". Louise leapt to her wand lying quite close from her. Holding it tightly in both hands, she charged towards the Jörmungandr. "Don't take me as a fool! Until now, how many times have I defeated you? This time won't be an exception either!" Louise's words rang out. These words were unsupportable in Sheffield's head. "Oh? Then what are you prepared to do?" "Use my magic!" "How long are you going to keep dreaming? Haven't I proved your magic ineffective already? You useless void user really surprise me." ''How did I do it? How did I always emerge victorious then? "Where did your familiar run off to? That kid always sticks to you like a faithful watchdog, shielding you. Did he leave you out of despair?" Watchdog? '' "I never had a familiar! I did it all by myself...." Suddenly, Louise felt an intense throbbing pain in her head, thus bending down to the ground in agony. The pitch black fissure in her heart.... the deeply opened up fracture, was blaming Louise. ''"Gentle? You're really foolish, Louise." Being once described like that by Henrietta.... Did she really rely solely on her power to gain victory? Then... she was reminded of Guiche's countless attempts to persuade her of something. Who is Saito? '' "....who?" Every time this name popped out, her heart darkened, tormenting the crack in her heart, as if threatening it to widen even more. While searching for a light in the pitch blackness of her heart, she suddenly understood everyone's feelings. Louise was confused. Seeing her face, Sheffield laughed rudely. "Did you really forget? Or was I right about him abandoning you? That makes perfect sense; you are after all a useless waste of space, the most incapable out of all incapables! Ah, thinking about how many times I actually lost to this weak human! Such a shame! However, today will be the end! I will show my master your dying face. That way, my master will definitely be pleased, knowing who really treats him the best." In Louise's mind, something flashed. Countless episodes of desperation. Crises conquered by Louise. But, inside... something made her feel that these adventures were but silly dreams. She was unwilling to accept it. ''Am I not really myself? Then...who? A silhouette of somebody tampered around with Louise's heart. That gentle silhouette. That projection, encouraging her in her memories, shielding her from attacks… "Save me." Louise pleaded for help without thinking. "Begging for your life? You’re actually begging for your life?" "Saito, save me!" Like chanting an unknown spell, these words flowed out of Louise's mouth naturally. Even though these words were unknown to Louise's knowledge, as long as this name came out, for some reason she felt like she would definitely be saved. "Oho, even the legendary void mage gave up and started praying? Compared to my master's power, you puny void user are weaker than a newborn infant. You shame the carriers of void! Suffer my wrath!" The Jörmungandr raised its foot. In Louise's vision, the Jörmungandr's humongous foot kept magnifying. What was about to destroy her was a giant's foot. Frightened to the core, Louise cried out "Saito! Save me!" Must live, must definitely live. If she died.... she could never recognize the gentle shadow again. Louise knew that this would be something much worse that dying. ....Expecting that instant to be her last, these thoughts zipped through her mind. CLANG! A sound of solid objects colliding was heard. Louise opened her eyes and… the foot of the Jörmungandr that was about to crush her was gone!? The Jörmungandr's giant body tilted backwards, losing its balance. Its huge body collided with the cliffs, flailing its arms and legs messily. Because it lost a leg, standing still became a difficult task. "Eh?" Louise was totally confused about the events that occured. The other Jörmungandr swiftly hid behind the rocks. "Louise!" Guiche, who was constantly getting her out of trouble, dashed towards her. He picked her up and ran away from the enormous golems. Like a tightly stretched wire suddenly being sliced in half, Louise fainted away abruptly. Saito, through his scope, noticed the other one. It was losing its balance oh so slowly, finally taken down on the cliffs of the canyon. The giant's collision brewed up a stew of sand and stones. "It looks like it's tuned up too low." Saito declared while looking through multiple triangular shaped scopes. He originally thought that the Jörmungandr's width was around 6 meters... but seems like 8 meters was the correct answer. Miscalculating the enemy's radius, the shell hit somewhat lower than where the scope really aimed at. Saito adjusted the angle of the 88 millimeter cannon. Right in the middle of the large triangular periscope displayed the Jörmungandr crawling for dear life. Subsequently, he pulled the trigger with force. Following the loud bang from the turret, smoke emitted from the interior and pumped out slowly from the ventilation above. Like a spear of light, the 88 millimeter shell embedded itself straight onto the now-no-longer-struggling Jörmungandr. The armor of the Jörmungandr were originally designed to withstand the maximal magical damage possible. Nevertheless, being capable of escaping harmlessly from the most powerful attacks has its own limits. The momentum of an 88 millimeter shell, if converted into Halkeginian units, meant that at 2000 meters away, it was able of piercing an 84 millimeter armor plate like cake. An armor thick enough to endure this shell has still yet to exist in this world. Shells capable of piercing through an armor of that size were not possible in this world. The shells for the Panzer, to everyone’s surprise, were in fact capable of doing so. Traveling at a speed of 700 meters per second, the 88 millimeter shell instantly demolished the Jörmungandr fallen to ground, cutting through the armor that caused nobles so much trouble, and exploding from within. The armor of the dead Jörmungandr expanded rapidly and blew to smithereens. From the end of the tank's cannon, out came an empty shell. Beside of Saito, a blue-haired girl carried another one approximately half the height of herself. "Tabitha, not that one. Load the one colored red on the end." Giving a little nod, Tabitha took another shell from the rack and pushed it within the 88 millimeter cannon according to how Saito taught her. She then shut the cannon tight. Saito returned to his periscope. He sought out the Jörmungandr hiding under the shadows of cliff rocks. The moment it stuck its head out to survey its environment, it was already located by Saito. "Where are you trying to run, you metal pigheads?" The trigger was pulled without a second thought. BOOM. Without deviating at the slightest, the 88mm shell was a perfect headshot, squishing the Jörmungandr's face. Losing its balance, it fell facing the sky. "Got him, comrade Saito!" Buzzing through the headphones, cheers were heard. It was Colbert, who was on the controller's seat. On the other side, Kirche exclaimed "Incredible... that must've been a distance of 2 miles, yet the shell still hit so accurately!" What should have been asked was why a Panzer would appear here... Bursting out of the door, arriving at the mentioned warehouse, Saito found the repaired Tiger I Panzer, accompanied by Kirche and the others. They seemed to have somehow gotten this tank while the ceremony was progressing. Saito filled the tank with gasoline initially used for the Zero fighter plane, and left promptly. Originally, Saito handled the controls and Colbert watched him excitedly from the side. But, soon Colbert was able to replace Saito, since he learned quite quickly thanks to his past experiences of repairing this tank and his knowledge of machines. "This is called 'Tiger', right? Controlling this tank is definitely much easier than that 'airplane'. Just pull this, and it moves forward..." Colbert stepped hard on the accelerator. Instantly, the Panzer's engine roared to life. Hiding behind the dense bushes behind the hills, they were able to observe Tiger's Highway completely. "If you turn this disk, we can spin." This was similar to the steering wheel of a car. The Panzer easily changed its course. "....Oh, exposing ourselves now, wouldn't that be a bad idea?" "Nah, the smoke from the cannons would reveal us anyway. Just charge forward. If we don't stop the enemy, they might..." Roaring numerous times, the Panzer dashed to the entrance of "Tiger's Highway". Mixed emotions of jubilation and tearfulness exploded from the fleeing Romalian army once they discovered that two Jörmungandr had perished. Sheffield, seeing through her monocle, confirmed the massive wreck those Jörmungandr caused when being destroyed. "From a distance of 2 miles, penetrating the armor of Jörmungandr......?" Unbelievable. '' Sheffield quickly realized that there was only one existence capable of achieving that. "So you finally appeared. How interesting! Let us end it here and now, Gandálfr." The Panzer roared strongly and charged toward the Canyon's entrance, pushing soil around its sides. There gathered Romalian soldiers and generals. As Saito emerged from the portal, a cavalry troop marching parallel of the tank greeted Saito: "Thanks for your help! Destroying that devil-like armored golem.... please inform me of your unit's name!" "Ondine Water Spirit Knights of Tristain!" "Understood! There is one more thing I wish to ask of you! Hoisting a flag affects morale! Please hoist this flag on top!" The soldier handed Saito a flag. It was black and white, showing in its center a drawing of a holy cross. "What is this?" Saito was a little bit muddled. Tabitha poked her head out the hole beside and told him "Crusader's flag." The design was surprisingly similar to the steel cross tattooed on the tank's body. ''Supposedly, this is a cross.... '' Saito searched his memory. ''Things turned out a little bit weird, Saito began to realize. Probably because this was a tank bearing a cross from Earth, carrying a cross of a parallel world seemed quite odd to him... Nonetheless, Saito hung the flag on the antenna. Waving in the winds, the flag instantly ignited the morale of the beaten Romalian army. "Long live Pope his Holiness! Long live the United Kingdoms!" The knight who handed Saito the emblem, cried out to his own army "Everyone! Attention! The great army from Tristain has joined us in our Crusade! Do not fear! We have the protection of our ancestors!" Still, the one fighting with the enemy is ultimately me.... '' Saito muttered to himself. "The hell I'd believe for whoever’s God this is for!" Above the Crusader's flag, Saito hung his own cape. His cape was decorated with delicate patterns of '''Sulaliai (修瓦里埃)' medals, dancing in the wind. With the sounds of chains clinking together, the Panzer arose to life once again. In the valley's entrance, six Jörmungandr appeared. Sheffield, who had acknowledged Saito's existence, decided to defeat him once in for all. In every Jörmungandr's hands, there were cannons plundered from the "sunken" warship. Quickly, Saito returned to the turret, closed the hatch, and sat in the gunner's seat, staring in the periscope. "Professor! Stop moving the tank!" Skidding across the ground, the Panzer spat dust in the air, and finally halted. The distance was about 1000 meters. From the triangular scope, the Jörmungandr's distinct silhouette was revealed. With Halkeginia's technology, making a periscope this powerful and precise was absolutely impossible. The Jörmungandr turned their cannons towards the Panzer. Light began to gather from these cannons. The six Jörmungandr fired in unison. Flares produced by the shots flew everywhere. The shells of the cannons flew in the Panzer's direction, screeching loudly while slicing through the air. Where they landed, dust and dirt exploded violently. One of the shells landed right in front of the tank, blasting the ground to smithereens. The tank shook incredibly. Like wood hitting a copper bell, a large echoing 'CLANG!' was made. Tabitha covered her ears and knelt on the floor. Yet, that was all the damage caused. Similar to cannons made on Earth several hundreds of years ago, it was deemed impossible to penetrate a Panzer's robust armor. "You dumbasses. Don't even think about winning! You have grown to become giant idiots!" Saito yelled this and activated the trigger. "Don't look down on Earth, playground of imagination!" Completely indifferent of the enemy's speed, the shells demolished every single Jörmungandr the instant they hit one. 'THUNK!' A large hole opened up on one Jörmungandr's giant body; thus, it fell back, killed in action. The remaining five Jörmungandr, initiated a surprise attack in order to defeat the tank. At a distance of 800 meters, one fell. At 600 meters, another one fell. Once the cannon emptied, it was refilled while the tank retreated. Though the Jörmungandr were very speedy, catching up to a Panzer driving backwards was still quite difficult. The Panzer appeared to be heavy; in reality its speed was not as dull as imagined. Moving to keep its distance, and stopping again to fire, this was Saito strategy. Saito repeated this retreating attack numerous times. Jörmungandr were no different from sitting ducks, called to death one by one by the Panzer. Because of the sudden appearance of Gandálfr, a hot-headed Sheffield lost her senses and actually ordered the entire army to charge forward. Apparently, Sheffield had no idea what a "tank" was. In front of a grand and wide plain with no cover whatsoever, charging together towards the tank.... was suicide.